In New York, 34,000 Teamsters could soon vote on a plan approved by the Treasury Department to introduce cuts to pension benefits, which would take effect Oct. 1st. Even if the participants vote “no,” the Treasury Department could allow the cuts to go through anyway in order to protect the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation from taking the hit.

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The New York State Teamsters Conference pension fund withdrew their application to cut pensions after getting information that hinted their first application would be denied. While this doesn’t mean the 5,200 active and retired Teamsters members in New York are in the clear for good, it does mean that their pensions are safe for a few more months.

Meanwhile, four more unions filed applications with the U.S. Treasury Department asking permission to cut retirement benefits in order to keep their funds solvent (hopefully). The United Furniture Workers’ (merged with IUE-CWA) fund is in the worst shape of the new applicants with projected insolvency expected to take place in the next five years if nothing is done. In total, if all applications are approved, as many as 20,309 union members could